Although the disease cancer did not begin with the industrial revolution, it is now a major component of it because one of the most profound consequences of the event was an increase in average life expectancy particularly for those of us who live in the so-called industrialized world. Cancer needs time to develop. Another consequence, of course, has been an increase in environmental toxins as a result of our economic activity. Cancer is stimulated, biochemically, by carcinogens like those found in pesticides.